Monday February 9, 2026 | VICTORIA, BC [Posted at 5:25 pm]
Political analysis by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
The BC NDP and BC Greens have gone their separate ways.
This comes one year after collaborating by way of an agreement by which the Greens would support the NDP government in the House.
That agreement — called Cooperation and Responsible Government Accord (CARGA) — was intended to stabilize the razor-thin majority that is held by the NDP government led by Premier David Eby.
The CARGA was signed on March 12, 2025 several months after the messy aftermath of very close results in the October 2024 provincial election (not confirmed until mid-November 2024), and two months after Eby issued his mandate letters to his cabinet ministers in mid-January 2025.
Now as the BC Greens have decided that the NDP have not met their side of the bargain (i.e. making progress on an identified list of issues), the NDP has lost the assurance of stable votes for the passage of legislation.
Given the extensive list of Green expectations, it was not likely that the BC NDP would have been found to have met the high benchmark of significant progress or completion on major broad expectations like health care.
In that respect, it really comes as no surprise that CARGA has lasted only one year.
Many of Eby’s ministers are new to elected politics and new to cabinet. Whether that put a drag on ministerial progress in the work of any of the ministry’s is hard to know.
CARGA and CASA:
The CARGA was a custom variation on the strategy that was used by former Premier the late John Horgan who signed a full Confidence and Supply Agreement (CASA) with the BC Greens in 2017 — for the same reason (stability in House votes) but with more surety.
Both agreements have given the BC Greens quite a bit of room to influence government policy or action, more than would be the case if both parties were operating entirely in their own lanes.
For Green supporters, these agreements have been a bonus for Greens, while they have somewhat tied the hands of the NDP.
Political spectrum:
In traditional political terms, both the NDP and the Greens are considered progressive or ‘left’.
There are key differences between the two parties in BC but their overall goals for society are similar enough that that now two BC NDP governments have found some wisdom in arious levels of formalized cooperation with the Greens.
CARGA has afforded an opportunity for the Greens to strengthen their work in the 43rd Parliament of BC.
Today’s end of CARGA is a notable bookmark in the timeline of this parliament, as there is less assurance of legislative passage by the NDP.
Deputy Premier’s statement:
BC NDP Government Deputy Premier Niki Sharma today issued the following statement on CARGA:
“We’ve done good work with the Greens over the past year, and I want to thank Jeremy and Rob for their collaboration. Our priority with the Green Party has been to find shared priorities we could cooperate on, that would also ensure additional stability for British Columbians.
“However, as the Greens won’t rule out on voting with the Conservatives on confidence measures to trigger an election, we were unable to find common ground. British Columbians don’t want an election – they want us to take action on the things that matter to them.
“As we do with other MLAs, we will work with the Greens on an issue-by-issue and vote-by-vote basis.”
BC Greens state their reasons:
BC Green Caucus will not be renewing the Cooperation and Responsible Government Accord (CARGA) with the BC NDP.
“The BC Greens entered the CARGA agreement in good faith because British Columbians needed stability and results,” said Rob Botterell, BC Greens MLA for Saanich North and the Islands.
“But when the BC NDP failed to deliver on clear 2025 commitments—commitments they agreed to complete—it raised serious questions about their ability to execute, and it broke the trust that agreement depended on,” said Botterell.
“This government is increasingly centralized, less collaborative, and less willing to work with partners,” said Jeremy Valeriote, BC Greens MLA for West Vancouver – Sea to Sky. “We’ve seen it in legislation, in labour disputes, in failed consultations and reports not acted upon. In the legislature, this BC NDP has been closed to amendments and compromise.”
“Effective governments work well with others—they don’t sideline them,” said Valeriote.
“The NDP’s fiscal situation is not an excuse for broken commitments,” added Botterell. “We brought forward solutions, including serious revenue options. The consequences of this government’s fiscal choices shouldn’t be downloaded onto working British Columbians, and that’s who we negotiated for in our CARGA priorities.
“Under Premier Eby, this government has chosen the status quo over courageous action. It has chosen corporate welfare over community solutions,” say the BC Greens, perhaps not recognizing the current need to work with major business enterprise as part of pivoting and strengthening BC’s economy under the trade threat from the US and as part of trade diversification across Canada.
“On climate, Indigenous rights, civil liberties, and other core issues, the gap between our parties is clear and growing. We offered stability and bold action; the BC NDP chose instability and status quo,” added BC Green MLA Valeriote.
“Our agreement with the BC NDP is now over, but our agreement with the people of British Columbia is as strong as ever. We’ll keep fighting for affordability, climate action, Indigenous rights and a responsible government that works for all British Columbians.
BC Green Party stance:
BC Green Party Leader Emily Lowan itemized the following three points as a few of the undelivered or stalled commitments by the BC NDP under CARGA.
Though some of these issues were the subject of work or work-in-progress by the NDP (such as a continued BC NDP government focus on expanding out the health care system with more clinics, a revised/improved agreement with the Doctors of BC, progressing toward the opening of a new medical school in Surrey, continuing work on hospital construction, etc):
- Primary Health Care: Our healthcare system is failing British Columbians, which is why CARGA secured concrete commitments to expand community-based care. While important health system reviews and data collection initiated under the agreement have filled long-standing gaps and been widely welcomed by healthcare workers, the BC NDP has failed to act on their own findings. Most notably, the $15 million committed to support new and existing Community Health Centres has yet to be spent, leaving working families without the care they were promised.
- Transit: While CARGA committed to expanding frequent, reliable, and affordable transit on key corridors, including Vancouver Island and the Sea-to-Sky route, the BC NDP has delivered no concrete action that would put a single new bus on the road in 2026.
- Electoral Reform: The accord identified democratic reform, including work toward proportional representation, as a shared priority. An all-party Special Committee recommended the creation of a People’s Assembly on electoral reform, and an EKOS poll found that 75% of British Columbians support moving toward proportional representation. Despite this clear direction, Premier Eby has seemingly dismissed further consideration of proportional representation, without fully considering the recommendations of his own MLAs.
Background:
The BC Green Caucus and BC NDP Caucus reached a final Cooperation and Responsible Government Accord (CARGA) on March 12, 2025, committing to work together on key shared priorities.
The agreement included a built-in mechanism for annual renegotiation, allowing both parties to set a new list of priorities and determine if they wish to continue CARGA each year. As part of the accountability measures, both parties also committed to delivering quarterly progress reports.
However, according to the BC Greens, over half of the 2025 commitments are incomplete. Key failures by the B.C. NDP to date include:
- Insufficient progress on regional transit for the Sea-to-Sky region.
- No expansion of public coverage of psychologist appointments ($50 million unspent).
- No support for new and existing Community Health Centres ($15 million unspent).
- No review of social assistance and disability assistance rates.
The BC Greens have posted their full catalog of what they consider to be “fulfilled and unfulfilled promises“.
===== RELATED:
Eby delivers tough tariff talk as ministers get mandate letters (January 16, 2025)
NEWS SECTIONS: BC 43rd PARLIAMENT | BC NDP | BC GREENS